If Bonds hits 756, will it make a sound?

WEEKEND WATCHDOG

If Clara Peller were still with us today, there's a good chance the burger pitchwoman would be grousing, "Where's the buzz?!"

Barry Bonds is just seven home runs shy of Hank Aaron's all-time mark, yet it seems fans are more excited about the WNBA Western Conference race than they are in the greatest record in sports.

"It's a very awkward situation, to say the least," said Baseball Tonight analyst Tim Kurkjian. "I think there's a buzz; I just don't think it's a positive buzz."

And light-years away from the celebration Major League Baseball was hoping for just a few short seasons ago.

ESPN has been giving the temperamental slugger a decent amount of airtime. The net continues to feature all of his homers, and who will ever forget last year's miniseries, Bonds on Bonds? And you can bet it will ramp things up in the coming weeks.

But overall, it's hard to get excited about this, which is in great contrast to 1974 when Aaron passed Babe Ruth or in 1985 when Pete Rose overtook Ty Cobb as the all-time hits leader.

Two or three years ago, it seemed America finally was ready to embrace Bonds as he was belting home runs at a record pace and beginning his climb toward Ruth and Aaron.

But then something called BALCO began rearing its giant head, and now folks seem about as interested in watching the chase as Bonds does talking to Pedro Gomez.

"This is a very polarizing argument, and we're going to be talking about this 50 years from now," Kurkjian said. "But in the end, it comes down to everybody's individual thoughts about what this means to them."

With the Giants left fielder sitting on 748 home runs, Major League Baseball is working with ESPN and Fox on the parameters for covering the event as he approaches Aaron's 755.

Here's what we know:

After this Saturday's Yankees-Giants game on Fox, neither network has San Francisco on its schedule for several weeks. Games could be added or changed, but as of now, the next time we will see Barry will be July 14 on Fox and July 16 on ESPN.

Obviously, if either of those networks is airing the games in which Barry ties or breaks the record, it will be a huge coup because no one else likely will be allowed to break in for either live coverage or a replay. Even if the nets are showing a different game in their time slots, they probably will have exclusive rights to cut to his at-bats.

ESPN has cut-in rights to Bonds' live at-bats during Baseball Tonight and will break in from all other programming to show the replay unless the game is on Fox. Read: Watch for extended editions of Baseball Tonight when he reaches 754.

Other networks such as CBS and NBC can request access to break in for replays, but neither seems particularly enthused about that.

LOVE THEM KURKGEMS

If you watch Baseball Tonight on ESPN, then you know Kurkjian is great at finding interesting nuggets and factoids about the game. And if you talk to him for any time at all, it's clear his obsession with baseball stats and facts is a labor of love.

The former Sports Illustrated writer begins his days scouring box scores for unusual facts from the previous day's games. (In fact, he has saved every box score from every game for the past 18 years.) If he spots something unusual that he can't confirm on his own, he calls the Elias Sports Bureau for help.

A couple of his favorite "Kurkgems":

In 2005, the Red Sox hit walk-off home runs in consecutive games. The only other time that happened in team history was in 1935 when pitcher(!) Wes Ferrell did it.

Then there's his ongoing tribute to Bonds in which he lists the names of players Barry has homered off during his 22-year career, including Abbott and Castillo, Dustin and Hoffman and Murphy and Brown.

And just this past week, he discovered that the Angels' Chone Figgins went 6-for-6 Monday night. Now, he knew a 6-for-6 day is about as rare as a no-hitter, but he also noted that Figgins had driven in the winning run.

So he called Elias to find out the last time a player went 6-for-6 and drove in the game-winner.

Turns out it was the Tigers' Jim Northrup in 1969.

Voila: Kurkgem!

REMOTE PATROL

There's lots of good stuff on the air the next few days.

- The College World Series Finals between Oregon State and North Carolina begins Saturday (ESPN, 7). Game 2 of the best-of-three series is Sunday at 7 p.m. on ESPN2 and Game 3 would be Monday at 7 p.m. on ESPN. This is another of those sports that is fun to watch once a year, especially if you like high-octane baseball powered by aluminum bats.

- TNT NASCAR analyst Kyle Petty will provide commentary from inside his No. 45 Dodge during the Toyota/Save Mart 350 in Sonoma, Calif. (Sunday, 5 p.m.). Just what we need: a view of 42 rear spoilers all day.

- The world's greatest tennis tournament begins Monday at the All England Lawn Tennis Club. ESPN2 will provide 123 hours of coverage of Wimbledon beginning at 7 a.m. Monday and continuing through the men's semifinals July 6. NBC will have the women's and men's finals. Will be interesting to see if ratings suffer as America's tennis slump continues, and Roger Federer dominates the men's side with no chance at a Grand Slam.

- Finally, Shaquille O'Neal makes his debut as a reality TV host when Shaq's Big Challenge airs Tuesday at 9 p.m. on ABC. Shaq runs a training camp for obese middle-school children in this six-part series. Mixed emotions: Perhaps this is a reality show that actually could have a positive impact. But at the same time, if it's not done tastefully it could do more harm than good.